I will focus my research on the physical and social environmental factors that play a role in the development of obesity. I will be using data from the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults Study (CARDIA), a longitudinal study of the antecedents and risk factors for cardiovascular disease in a cohort of 5,115 black and white young adults aged 18-30 years at baseline (1985). Using Geographic Information Systems (GIS), a geographic link can be made between respondent residential addresses and data on environmental factors derived from a series of federal and commercial databases. Through this spatial analysis methodology, I will be able to use the CARDIA dietary history data to understand the dynamics of dietary behaviors and weight gain over time in the CARDIA cohort. The results promise to provide useful insights into the nature of the shifts in eating behavior and obesity in the U.S.